Author: Melanie C.

I finally got to visit New York City and from my view on the red stair case in the middle of Times Square, I was taken aback by all the flashing screens. It had been a lifelong dream of mine to visit New York and honestly it wasn’t really what I expected. I remember watching the ball drop on television every New Year’s Eve with my family and I was always fascinated by the celebration in Times Square. My experience, however, felt like I was on an episode of Law and Order. The streets were littered with trash, graffiti painted the sides of buildings and people on the streets obviously had no regard for your personal space when they were trying to sell you things like bus passes and CD’s. Taxi drivers, were for the most part, okay, but there were times I could barely bring myself to look out the front windshield cause of their terrible driving.

The sounds of the city were immense, people hollering, car horns honking and passing buses were sometimes overwhelming. The only true escape from the noise was visiting the World Trade Center Memorial. I was mesmerized by the absolute sound of silence around the memorial. It was extremely humbling to be there as well. Walking around the fountain edge and reading the names etched into the granite is an experience I’ll never forget.

All in all, I am glad I can now mark New York City off of my bucket list.

Where to now…….?

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In May, I decided to visit some friends in Phoenix and I couldn’t help but love this scene of the busy traffic circle or roundabout as they are sometimes called. We also drove over to the Hoover Dam and it was absolutely breathtaking. All I could think about was how in the world I was going to photograph this massive structure. Photos of the dam just do not accurately reflect it’s size and beauty. The random roadside scenery was amazing and capturing what I saw with my own eyes was hard at times. All in all, as the sun set on the last day of my trip, I realized my trip was coming to an end and that I would miss the dry heat and low humidity. I’d be back though, I told myself, but next time I’ll definitely have to stay longer.

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On Easter Sunday, I spent most of the afternoon chasing my granddaughter around the yard taking pictures. I couldn’t get my settings on my camera changed fast enough as she ran through the yard with her Easter basket spilling eggs as she moved from one egg to the next. As she stopped to check on the eggs in the basket I was able to get a few good shots but not many. I was just happy to get the ones I could. I definitely need to be quicker at adjusting my shutter speed. She’s a good subject for getting better at taking action shots for sure.

During an impromptu get together with a friend and my urge to take some pictures of the cows in the field next to us I got a shot of the cow we nicknamed, “2221”. Every time I took a picture she was there whether eating or resting and in most shots looking at me like I was an idiot, but she wasn’t the only one. The second shot reminded me of the “Eat Mor Chikin” add Chick-fil-A advertises with.

Yes, my interests in taking certain pictures is very random. I think the best pictures come from unrehearsed moments of life captured in an instant. So crawling around on the ground taking pictures of cows was an uncomfortable moment, but worth it.

Fast forward two days later and I’m taking more pictures of storm clouds cause they’re amazing. As this cloud got closer it definitely got darker but soon the clouds gave way to the evening sky once more. This enormous cloud quickly this passed over us and it didn’t even rain until after the cloud had passed. I guess it’s up to Mother Nature to decide when and where she will unleash her fury. I’m just glad it wasn’t at that moment.

The other day, I had my camera out and caught a glimpse of some approaching storm clouds at sunset. They weren’t really big, but we were expecting rain that evening. I took several random shots that day and this one just happens to be my favorite. I’m still in that random shot photography stage and I haven’t found my niche yet, but I will eventually. I think it’s important during my photography journey to figure this out even though it may take a while. For now though, I’ll stick to the random shots. One of the biggest things I struggle with so far is losing details in my pictures and I’ve been learning to correct this by using my histogram more frequently. I have learned a lot from it in Adobe Lightroom as well. The arrows to the right and left of the histogram in Lightroom will allow you to correct the blown highlights and blacks in your photographs which makes for better editing.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I hate spiders immensely. I, on the other hand, was looking for things to photograph so I had to bite my tongue on this one. Chills ran up my spine as I zoomed in on this eight-legged creature. All I kept thinking was “please don’t let him be one of those jumping spiders!” Fortunately for me and my camera he was still because if he had moved just one bit, I probably would have dropped my camera and had a heart attack. I read an excerpt from a photographer once and it said that in photography you have to get “comfortable being uncomfortable.” Truth be told, I’ll never be comfortable with spiders.